1 » Florida Gators point guard Scottie Wilbekin has done an admirable job during his first two NBA Summer League games with the Memphis Grizzlies in Orlando, Florida. The Orlando Sentinel caught up with him on Sunday, and Wilbekin explained that he is doing well but having some difficulty adjusting to the limited minutes. The Grizzlies’ summer league coach, Shawn Respert, told the paper that he is pleased with what he’s seen from Wilbekin. “You can’t teach an overall IQ,” he said. “The guy plays with a pace that I think is healthy for a successful basketball team. He doesn’t force things. He knows when to push the gas pedal and when to push the brake. I think it’s just an innate ability that some players naturally have: to know how to play. With Scottie, I’m really proud of the fact of how he’s handled himself. He’s going to be very, very successful. He’s going to be a guy that, if you look in our league six or seven years down the road, he’s going to be an important part of a team that’s winning.”

2 » Florida head basketball coach Billy Donovan last week participated in the Southeastern Conference’s summer teleconference and spoke briefly about a couple of issues somewhat concerning the Gators. Below are some of Donovan’s thoughts from the media availability:

1 » FOXSports.com college football columnist Bruce Feldman believes the Florida Gators face the third-toughest road to the 2014 College Football Playoff, only behind Arkansas and California. With Alabama, LSU, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida State on the schedule – plus a rebuilding Tennessee and improving Kentucky along with a Vanderbilt team that snapped its 22-year losing streak to UF – Feldman believes the Gators will wind up facing up to five top 15 opponents by the time the regular season has concluded. As a means of comparison, the Razorbacks will take on Auburn, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and LSU with games against Ole Miss and Mississippi State peppered in there as well.

Unless something unexpectedly changes over the next few weeks, former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow will not play a down of football in the 2013 NFL regular season after failing to earn a roster spot with the New England Patriots in August.

Though there have been a rash of quarterback injuries this season and a number of less successful and talented signal callers were signed by franchises across the league, Tebow’s phone did not ring with another opportunity. Teams are either not interested in Tebow’s talent, still balking at the so-called “circus” that follows him…or both. And he has shown no willingness to attempt and extend his career by taking a shot at playing across the border in the CFL or even at home in the AFL.

Instead, he has spent the entire year out west working on his game with personal instructors while exploring another career path – broadcaster. Tebow has even gone so far as to hire Creative Arts Agency broadcast agent Nick Khan to represent him in what are believed to be serious negotiations with a number of networks.

It should come as no surprise then that ESPN, which is launching the SEC Network in August 2014 and looking for a headline-grabbing talent, and CBS, which owns the rights to the Southeastern Conference game of the week, are two of three major networks already vying for Tebow’s on-air services.

McIntyre reports that ESPN plans for Tebow to have a featured role on the SEC Network in what could be considered the “Kirk Herbstreit chair” on the new channel’s version of College GameDay. The program would be hosted by Rece Davis (taking Chris Fowler’s spot) and also feature Paul Finebaum (for Lee Corso) and another former SEC player (who would take on a hybrid Desmond Howard-David Pollack position).

Update: The SEC Network announced Friday that Joe Tessitore will host the show, which has been titled SEC Nation.

1 » Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp told the media on Monday that four-star safety Marcell Harris (Orlando, FL) and JUCO transfer offensive tackle Trenton Brown (Milledgeville, GA) have both enrolled in Summer A classes and therefore officially joined the football program. Both players were originally planning to enroll early in January but were not able to amass the necessary credits in time. Harris, the No. 67 overall 2013 prospect according to Rivals and the son of former Florida S Mike Harris (1994-97), will compete for playing time right away as the Gators look to replace two starters in the defensive backfield. Brown will have some work to do to prove he is deserving of immediate playing time but is expected to play as a reserve this season.

2 » If he wants to, quarterback Tim Tebow will be able to play football in 2013. Whether that is in the NFL is another topic altogether. Tebow, who has already received offers from the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes (to compete for a back-up job) and the AFL’s Orlando Predators (to compete for a starting job), has also been reached out to by the AFL’s Philadelphia Soul. Team co-owner Ron Jaworski, a former NFL quarterback who now works primarily as an NFL analyst for ESPN, told the Philadelphia Daily News that he has offered Tebow a roster spot. “I still haven’t heard back from him and I’m not going to push it,” he said. “If he decides he wants to play Arena Football, we’ll make a spot for him.” Jaworski added that the role would not be as a starting quarterback; rather, he and the Soul’s coach sent Tebow a list of plays he would run for the team should he accept the contract offer.

It was announced on Monday that former Florida Gators quarterback Chris Leak will be returning to his alma mater as a quality control assistant with the football program.

Leak, the Most Valuable Player of the 2007 BCS Championship and the school’s career leader in pass attempts (1,458), completions (895) and passing yardage (11,213), has spent the last five seasons playing in the CFL and AFL. He won two Grey Cup rings as a back-up quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes.

Leak has also been a member of the media for the last two years, serving as a co-host on SiriusXM’s College Sports Nation and a college football analyst for CBS Sports.

As a quality control assistant, an entry-level coaching job, Leak will be tasked with scouting and breaking down film for game-planning purposes. He will likely work with the defense, solely assisting the coaching staff by helping evaluating offenses and not working directly with the players.

NCAA rules outline that a college football coaching staff may only have nine full-time assistant coaches and two graduate assistants. Quality control assistants and interns cannot participate in coaching activities.

Leak told OGGOA eight months ago that he made some return trips to Gainesville, FL to meet with head coach Will Muschamp, the coaching staff and the new players.

“I love being at Florida,” he said. “I loved being a Gator.”

Leak’s addition to the program was first confirmed by the Palm Beach Post but subsequently noted by multiple media outlets.

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From time to time, OGGOA will come across a plethora of news and notes that we wish to share – too much to fit into one of our truncated BITS segments. When stories like these fall through the cracks, we catch and wrap them all up with Gator Bites.

» The relationship between Dwyer High School head coach Jack Daniels and the Florida Gators has soured. According to ESPN 106.3 out of West Palm Beach, FL, Daniels is angry that two former Dwyer players who committed to Florida but have since left the program (quarterback Jacoby Brissett and tight end Gerald Christian) did not get the opportunities they were promised with the team. “I’ve said all along, I don’t think he’s been given the fair shot which was said was going to happen,” Daniels said in regards to Brissett. “It was made clear to him, and to everybody else, that it didn’t matter what Jeff Driskel did, it was [Driskel’s] job and going into next fall, it’s going to be the same way. I think he had no choice. If I was quarterback on that team last year, I might have been able to get some wins, the way their defense was playing.” He continued: “The way Jacoby was handled and the decision that was made…if it was my kid, I wouldn’t expect anybody to treat my kid like that, and I don’t think anybody should treat anybody like that. I think it was a complete lie about how he was going to be given a fair chance and I don’t think there’s anything to dispute that there wasn’t a lie.”

Despite all of this – including similar comments about how Christian “was frustrated and felt like the coaches were lying to him” – Daniels (a Florida alumnus) said he will not dissuade his students from playing for the Gators. “I can’t hold a grudge forever and I still talk to Coach [Will] Muschamp,” he said. “I would never steer a kid away.”

» Former Florida wide receiver Stephen Alli was selected with the second pick in the sixth round of the 2013 CFL Draft by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers over the weekend. Alli, who would have been chosen higher had he committed to playing in the CFL next season, will instead attend graduate school and continue his education at UF.

» He may currently be a free agent hoping for the opportunity to continue his NFL career, but former Gators quarterback Tim Tebow received a shred of good news this week when Forbes named him the most influential athlete in the United States. “A unique set of QB strengths and weaknesses and an affinity for wearing his Christian faith on his sleeve combine to make Tebow a compelling public figure, even as an NFL backup,” staff member Tom Van Riper wrote.

1 » Now that former Florida Gators quarterback is officially a free agent after being waived by the New York Jets (and then going through the waiver wire unclaimed), he has the opportunity to choose where he wants to play next should teams offer him the chance. Unfortunately for Tebow, many of teams have already decided that he is not in their plans. Pro Football Talk has done a good job piecing together comments from interviews with direct information they have uncovered. Here is a list of teams that (at least as of press time) have internally said “no” to Tebow or made those comments public in one form or another: Chicago, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay, New York Jets (obviously), Denver (obviously). That lists consists of less than one-third of the NFL’s 32 franchises.

2 » Two teams that have at least in some way commented on Tebow did not completely rule him out. Detroit general manager Martin Mayhew, while a guest on 97.1 The Ticket, addressed the situation. “I feel good about our quarterbacks right now,” he began. “We’ve got four on our roster and we typically go with four. But I’m the kind of guy who never says never. Miami refused comment altogether. “Our decision-making process regarding player personnel is confidential and we don’t discuss it publicly,” long-time Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene told PFT.

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1 » On Monday, OGGOAopined via Twitter that the Chicago Bears potentially hiring Montreal Alouettes (CFL) head coach Marc Trestman could open up another potential destination for former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow (as a reserve). Two days later, in the wee hours of the morning, Trestman’s hiring was announced. So what exactly is the connection between these two? Not only did Trestman work as Tebow’s quarterback coach and consultant in his training before joining the NFL as a rookie, the coach adamantly defended the player on numerous occasions and propped up his ability to transform into a solid signal caller at the next level.

“I believe, in the right environment, Tim Tebow will figure this out,” he told The Morning Journal in April 2010. “He doesn’t have explosive arm strength, but he has more than adequate arm strength to throw the ball in the NFL and make all the throws. I saw him do something totally different in seven or eight days. I can only imagine what he’s going to do in one year or two years, because he’s going to outwork everybody else and find a way to figure it out.”

He continued, “If you’re a coach and you love coaching quarterbacks, you’d love the opportunity to develop Tim Tebow. That’s going to be the question. Guys are going to be asking themselves, ‘Wouldn’t I love to go to work every day and coach this kid? Is there enough there I can work with to make this happen in our system?’ When I go into that room with him he’s going to demand of me all the help I could give him, and he’s going to want me to demand of him everything he can give us. It’s a beautiful thing, because it all begins in the quarterback room.”

Whether or not Trestman will consider bringing Tebow in as a second- or third-string developmental quarterback during his first year as a NFL head coach remains to be seen. Tebow has become toxic to some in league circles because of the pressure his fan base levies against a team and how the New York Jets handled him this season. But a strong coach who is willing to say up front that Tebow is being added as a developmental player could succeed with him long-term.

2 » “Read option” is the phrase of the year in the NFL and with so many teams having success with mobile quarterbacks that use their legs nearly as often as their arms, Tebow may very well find a home somewhere as a backup in one of those situations. Another potential landing spot that will be using some form of the spread offense in 2013 is the Philadelphia Eagles, which just hired Oregon head coach Chip Kelly on Wednesday. The team already has Michael Vick under contract through 2015 and will likely be drafting a young, mobile signal caller to back him up but might still have a spot for a player like Tebow on the roster. Just weeks after it looked like Tebow may no longer have a home in the NFL, some interesting opportunities have most certainly opened up. Whether any of them have legitimate interest in the former Heisman Trophy winner is another story altogether.

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